Lightstreamer base directory (i.e. LS_HOME in the LS.sh script) is known to the Server in an implicit way, through the position of the configuration file. The Server assumes that the directory structure is never altered, so it can reach "shared" from the directory of the configuration file as "../shared".

The jars in the "shared" directory are loaded manually by the Server during the initialization phase.
At the moment there is little practical difference between placing jars in "lib" or in "shared". However, this distinction is encouraged as it will allow for a future separation of the adapter classloaders from the kernel classloader.